This application claims the priority of German application 196 54 362.2 filed in Germany Dec. 24, 1996, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
This invention relates to a heat transfer arrangement such as an oil cooler arrangement for motor vehicles having at least one heat transfer device. A liquid coolant and a liquid medium to be cooled are guided in the at least one heat transfer device in adjacent layers which are separated from one another by heat transmitting walls. An adapter plate is assigned to the heat transfer device, and connection ducts are provided between feeding and discharge bores for the heat transfer device.
Such a heat transfer device is known from German Patent Document DE-GBM 93 09 741. In this device, an adapter plate is assigned to the underside of a cooler constructed of plate-shaped heat exchange elements, as it is used in practice for cooling oil. This adapter plate is connected with a fastening plate which, on one side, closes off the adapter plate. The adapter plate is provided with recesses for forming a duct and with a feeding opening for the coolant. As a result, the heat transfer device can be fastened as a unit. As a result, inflow and discharge can simultaneously take place by way of the fastening plate from below.
There are a number of application possibilities in which several coolers must be provided for additional assemblies, such as an engine oil cooler, a servo oil cooler or a cooler for the transmission oil or for diesel oil. These additional assemblies must all be housed individually at a suitable point. This requires high expenditures and, moreover, sufficient space is not always available for housing the individual cooler aggregates.
The present invention is therefore based on the object of developing a heat transfer arrangement of the initially mentioned type such that several coolers can be combined to form a unit without any separate expenditures for the feeding of the coolant.
Based on the idea of using an adapter plate, the invention for achieving this object closes off the adapter plate by a cover plate. The cover plate is provided with a joint connection piece for the coolant, a connection duct and an opening for transporting the coolant. Two additional connections are provided for feeding and discharge of one medium respectively to be cooled of two heat transfer devices. These two heat transfer devices are arranged side-by-side on the cover plate and are connected to the joint connection piece for the coolant.
Because of this development, two or more heat transfer devices can be connected by way of a joint coolant connection and can jointly be fastened by the adapter plate. As a further development of the invention, coolant can flow in parallel through both heat transfer devices, and connection ducts for the coolant can rest on a joint end connection piece assigned to one of the two heat transfer devices.
According to certain preferred embodiments, it was found to be expedient to design one of two heat transfer devices for cooling the engine oil and the other for cooling the oil for the power steering. The reason for this is that these two coolers virtually represent the basic equipment for vehicles of different types and powers.
As a further development of the invention, heat transfer devices for cooling additional media, and particularly for cooling transmission oil and diesel oil, can be placed on the block of the engine cooler and/or of the servo oil cooler. Connections for the coolant are aligned with those of the blocks of the other two coolers and with those of the cover plate. In this manner, a compact assembly of different coolers which all have a common coolant connection and discharge can be achieved. The discharge connection piece for the coolant can be assigned to the engine oil cooler or to the diesel oil cooler placed upon the engine oil cooler. The invention achieves a heat transfer arrangement which can be individually adapted to the requirements of different vehicle types. However, since the arrangement has only an adapter plate as the fastening element and has an extremely compact construction, it can be installed in a simple and space-saving manner. In this case, the already existing coolant connection and discharge can be used for each of the coolers.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.